Yahoo should change invisibility. (Updated)

"the_annoying_ghost is now offline."

Disclaimer: Now don't get me wrong. I like that they put invisibility in Yahoo Messenger. It lets you get a preview of who is on and lets you log off without really logging off. You can use it to hide from assholes who start to boot you or to appear offline when you just don't feel like closing down all of messenger and logging back in later. But when people start to abuse this power is where it gets fucked up.

As a loser, I spend a lot of time online, and my messengers are on for as many waking hours as I can get away with. I've made a lot of good friends, and a few not-so-good, but rarely are more than 2 of them online at the same time. And when I'm bored I'm desperate to talk to one of them. It does not help when they're sitting there invisible, oblivious to the world. Thinking "I'm too good to accept IMs from anyone. I'm too good to respond right away if I get a supposed 'offline' message. I can simply put them on ignore and let them whimper and cry, just hoping to talk to someone to stave off their boredom."

I find myself now having to ask new friends if they use the invisible option like a snob. It's just waaay too easy to be able to be selective about people you want to talk to. MSN did invisibility better. You aren't allowed to send messages to people while your status is set to Appear Offline. You have to let people see you if you're going to talk.

Another aspect of invisibility that people never seem to realize is that when you use the option login under invisible mode The little bar that says so_and_so is now online never appears, even when they come back away from invisible. So when you're waiting for someone who seems to instinctually do this, you better not try to run anything maximised, you'll never see them. All you'll see is the inevitable letdown when they sign off, leaving you cursing Yahoo and yourself.

One of the worst things about people who use invisible all the time is the people who use invisible and have a shitty internet connection. They spend more time connecting to Yahoo than they do connected to Yahoo. You're suddenly talking to them and they stop responding. What happened? there are three possble situations in order of Assholity:
  • They have been disconnected. You will send a number of messages but never get a reply until they come back 20 minutes later with "Sorry, Yahoo booted me." You'll get a bit mad but shrug it off. it doesn't make you hate the person but makes you hate Yahoo more.
  • They were AFK. They leave to get a snack or use the bathroom or something comes up suddenly and they have to go. The reason this isn't lesser on the list is because they often fail to send one of the following 3-letter abbreviations that takes 1/5 of a second to type and send: AFK BRB BBL BBS GTG G2G
  • They're ignoring you. The absolute worst of all. They are an inconsiderate asshole and don't want to talk to you anymore so they are letting you talk to nothing.
    As bad as these things are per se, the thing that is the worst is that time between when they go incommunicado and when you find out why. In this time you're left wondering, worrying, thinking the worst, without any closure.

    How do we fix this? It's very simple. Selective invisibility. This will encompass a list, much like a block list, and will allow people on it to see you online even while invisible. This would be an optional tool, really only used by smart and responsible people and would not in any way interfere with regular invisibility. So all you annoying_ghosts won't have to worry about losing your way of online snooty life.

    Update 30/05/04

     Well, apparently someone on yahoo saw my page and took my advice to heart. It's not quite what I had in mind, but YM6's new Stealth settings effectively do what i've been bitching about all the time- lets you appear online to some and offline to others. They even fixed the little glitch mentioned in paragraph 4. The dragon is pleased. This pebble known as Earth will get to live at least another month.

    Posted 19/03/2004 - Last updated 20/03/2004
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